Daily Management Review

In Push For Deeper Market Access, Apple CEO Touts India Impact


06/27/2017




In Push For Deeper Market Access, Apple CEO Touts India Impact
Even as the iPhone maker seeks deeper access to the world's third-largest smartphone market behind the United States and China, in a meeting with the Indian prime minister on Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted the economic impact the company is having on India.
 
In recent years, the sale of iPhones and other Apple products have slipped in China – a major revenue sources for the country and Apple Inc is targeting the nascent Indian market as the next big revenue source. It is under this backdrop that Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a business summit in Washington.
 
In order to help build out its iPhone assembly work in the country, already Apple has asked Indian government officials for a range of tax and policy changes. In this huge market for smartphones, Apple currently sells iPhones through resellers and the company has been seeking permission to open its own retail stores in India.
 
According to a person familiar with the discussion, within the next six months, Apple expected its Indian operations to be run completely from renewable energy, Cook reportedly disclosed in his meeting with Modi.
 
The source reportedly told the media that Indian developers had created nearly 100,000 apps for the App Store and Apple had generated 740,000 jobs in India through its so-called "app economy", Cook reiterated at the meeting.
 
Just ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday, Modi talked with Cook and other U.S. corporate leaders.
 
Last month, assembly of iPhone SE was started in Bengaluru by Apple and the iPhone maker is working with contract manufacturer Winstron. Along with the requirement that more local components be used over time, the Indian government authorities have offered Apple tax concessions for the work being carried out in Bengaluru.
 
Once a major factor in Apple's rise, in the most recent quarter, sales in the greater China region have touched a low of to $10.7 billion and have noted a fall of 14 percent year over year and t hat is the reason that the company is looking to India for increasing its sale in the country with a population second only to China snd with a demography of over 60 percent of Indians below the age of 35 years.
 
Apple said that the sales grew by "strong double digits" there in the most recent quarter even though the company has not disclosed how much revenue it generates in India.
 
"We have a ton of energy going into the country on a number of fronts," Cook told analysts about Apple's efforts in India during the company's most recent earnings call. "We believe, particularly now that the 4G infrastructure is going in the country and it's continuing to be expanded, there is a huge opportunity for Apple there."
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)